But...that was 11 months ago, and time heals all wounds, right? So, we're back! Let's play ball! After all, it is fun, social (on an intra-team level), and good exercise.

Most Knightdale kickball leagues of late have had four teams, five if we're lucky. I've gone on the record as saying, there's no way they could make a three-team league work. If only three teams signed up, then surely they would cancel the league and refund our money, right? ... Nope! There are exactly three teams signed up for the Spring co-ed kickball league, and yet, the show will go on. So, we'll be seeing plenty of the other two teams: "the team that's better than us" and "the new team that we're better than, at least for now". In all, we have six games scheduled against each team, plus playoffs. (Thankfully, neither of the teams was one of those involved in that fight last season.)

A three-team league also means occasional doubleheaders, because that's the only way the league can have more than one game in the same day. But that's alright with me - it's a 35-minute drive from the house to the field, and a doubleheader gives me two games for the price of one (round trip). After Wednesday night's doubleheader, I'll have already played four games in eight days. In terms of the number of games I expect to play in this season - between 8 and 10, including preseason and playoffs - I'll already be about halfway done with my season, one week in. Efficiency! And that's good, because given the lack of depth in the league, I expect the enthusiasm to wane pretty quickly. Hopefully this won't result in a bunch of forfeits towards the end of the season. (I'm looking at you, new team. You're not going to quit on us halfway through the season like some other new teams have, are you? Because then we'd be down to a two-team league. At that point I would advocate cancelling the rest of the regular season and just playing the championship game right then.)

Looking ahead to the playoffs, which I assume will be single elimination: we'll almost certainly be in the 2/3 game, which we'll hopefully win, giving us a chance at the championship against the team that usually beats us. But, they don't always beat us. On a good day, it could happen. Maybe if we are fortunate enough to win those last two games, then that would definitely be a good time to hang it up, no?

The playoffs won't happen until late April / early May, so we'll see how kickball season 8 pans out in another month or so.